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Notes -
I think most Anglosphere jurisdictions now limit the discretion of local judges with some form of sentencing code produced by a body like the US Sentencing Commission (for federal crimes) or the English Sentencing Council.* Political supervision of the organisations that issue the code is possible, and would be a good idea. (Although the likely outcome of more political involvement in sentencing in today's degraded democratic culture is populists noisily passing longer sentences without spending the money to build the necessary prisons).
The real problem is that even judges have a limited say in sentencing if most cases are plea-bargained. Having sentencing decisions de facto made by prosecutors is good for democratic accountability in a system with elected DA's, but bad for the rule of law.
* I support mandatory tarring and feathering for everyone who registers a government domain on a .org, .org.uk or similar domain name, including the registrar. The government should be honest about what it is.
Right, I really should have mentioned sentencing guidelines and plea bargaining, since those probably have more of an impact on the criminal justice system than either judges or juries nowadays.
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